CFD Leadership Panel: Where are they now?

Community Field Day was held on October 20, 2009 at Dickinson State University. This event, hosted by the Strom Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, brought together community leaders to discuss the human aspect of leadership, entrepreneurship, resources for development, and youth.

The leadership panel which was comprised of Lyn James (Bowman), Kathy Miller (Medora), and Marie Hvidsten (RLND). Where are they now with their community and projects? We checked back and wanted to share about their progress and the story that they spoke about at Community Field Day.

Bowman:
Lyn James
Bowman held a strategic planning and leadership retreat last spring. At Community Field Day, Lyn reported about this retreat and the initial steps that the original committee was taking to push the strategic plan forward.

Where are they now?

Lyn reported back that the short term goals that were set up at the retreat are in the works:

• The Renaissance Zone has a great committee that has begun to work with the city commission.
• Exploration of a community foundation has started.
• Strides are being taken to build the leadership pool, a candidate was selected to attend RLND to represent the community and develop personal leadership skills.
• The economic developer continues to work on marketing the county. These efforts include a revised website, www.bowmannd.com and a facebook page, Bowman County, ND.

Leadership has become the biggest motivator of the project. All the boards are coming together to ensure that the plan takes shape and the entire county is positively influenced. The support has reached beyond those that attended the original retreat. Next fall, the group has decided to get together for a revisit retreat to evaluate the strategic plan. The positive encouragement promises that the revisit retreat will be well attended. Roadblocks continue to handicap progress but are being overcome by positive attitude and continued encouragement of local leaders.

This planning process has proved to be a good thing for all the communities in Bowman County.

Medora:
Kathy Miller
Medora recognized a natural fractioning of their city because of the different organizations. They wanted to achieve a greater sense of community through building relationships and trust to create a cohesive Medora team. This would result in a better experience for both locals and tourists. The committee organized two events, a motivational speaker and a team building day at Badlands Ministries High Rope Course.

Where are they now?

The Medora Community Days Campaign has been redirected to better accomplish their mission. While their first campaign had two separate events, the second campaign allows for a greater reciprocation in hosting and attending. The event follows the lines, “I’ll come play at your house, if you’ll come play at mine!” Each community organization was asked to come with an agenda to highlight their resources in an attempt for more community building and interaction.

Kathy Miller reported that the new campaign has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance. Some organizations have already made plans and others are still tossing around the ideas regarding options in participating. However, one organization declined because of time, manpower, and motivation. They reported that division and separation in a community is normal due to differences in interests. This reaction has been anticipated but the committee is emphasizing that the project goals are to get to know each other in order to work and play together for a stronger Medora. For the most part, all other entities met the project with excitement, commitment, and are looking forward to their plans. At the last committee meeting, the organizations came with a plan on their plate and a smile on their faces. Medora now identifies new leaders thanks to each entity coming forward with people in place to achieve the shared goals. This project is solely responsible for getting the message out that people notice the divisions and are wanting to break them down. The planned activities which highlight each organization will showcase the community like never before to the people who continue to be inspired by Medora.

Rural Leadership North Dakota (RLND)
Marie Hvidsten
RLND is an 18 month interactive study and travel program dedicated to producing graduates with the vision and commitment to lead themselves, their organizations, and their communities in the future. Marie shared the goals and some of the curriculum of the past three classes.

Where are they now?

The fourth class has officially started for RLND, which includes 18 students from all over the state. The students, which represent various ages and professions, have begun to decide on their community projects. The diversity of these projects are amazing: a high school leadership program, a community-wide recycling program, creating an indoor swimming pool, a community celebration, a natural resources tourism trail, and a fire alarm safety campaign. Not only are they taking inventory of their community needs and interests, they are evaluating their own personal styles and leadership SWOTS.

Another exciting avenue is that RLND is having a short-course in Watford City, which will meet five times for a total of 25 hours. This has never been offered so it has been exciting for the program to work with the community and anticipate what the students will be able to take away.

RLND acknowledges that communities need to implement that leadership be represented to look like your community. They have begun to work with youth involved practices that include this unique point of view and integrate all the generations into the leadership and sustainability of a community.

The challenge of marketing the class continues to be a roadblock for RLND. Marie’s goal of having every county represented in the RLND alumni is a possible reality because of the quality of students and the caliber of scholarships that have been granted to allow for continuation of the program.

Thank you to our panelists!

It’s exciting to see that these three communities/projects are continuing to be a success. The Community Development Project and the Strom Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation would like to thank Lyn James, Kathy Miller, and Marie Hvidsten for sharing the triumphs of their community projects at Community Field Day.

We look forward to reporting on other stories that were shared at the Community Field Day!

Amanda Lynn Moser
Community Development Project Coordinator
Strom Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Dickinson State University
P: 701.483.2830
Amanda.Moser@dickinsonstate.edu